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"The Justice Department rejected Milwaukee’s attempts to prohibit immigration agents from wearing masks in a Friday letter to Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and City Attorney Evan Goyke." (References SDRI Research).

"In the days since a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in east Houston, community leaders, residents and officials from nearly every corner of the city have called for an independent investigation into the shooting."

"In February - in the wake of federal agents shooting and killing two Minneapolis residents - Milwaukee council members were defiant."

"Federal law makes it very difficult to file lawsuits against federal officers, but some states have adopted their own laws to give people a so-called cause of action to sue."

"Nearly six months have passed since federal officers shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis. No one has been arrested, the Trump administration has provided no reason to believe that any serious investigation is taking place, and federal officials continue to stonewall state and local investigators in Minnesota."

"A recently proposed California bill would create a new avenue for individuals seeking relief for constitutional rights violations by federal officials. The proposal – which cleared the state Senate in a 30-10 vote and is currently pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee – is part of a broader national trend, with similar legislation proposed in Illinois, New York and Connecticut."

On June 17, 2026, the State Democracy Research Initiative’s faculty co-directors, Miriam Seifter and Rob Yablon, filed an amicus brief with six other legal scholars in United States v. New York et al., a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The appeal concerns whether the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution bars New York’s “Protect Our Courts Act” and several executive orders that limit state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

"University of Wisconsin Law School State Democracy Research Initiative attorney Bryna Godar explains a lawsuit against five county sheriffs in the state over the legal status of 48-hour ICE detainers."

"Over the course of months, from coast to coast, MS Now searched for answers and it became more clear that US Citizens don’t have much if any recourse when their rights are violated by Federal Agents. We followed LA native, Andrea Velez who is a US Citizen that was on her way to work last June when she was caught up in an ICE surge and detained for several days. Her charges were dropped but the experience has had lasting effects. We followed her to DC where she spoke alongside other US Citizens who have been in similar situations and hope to hold federal agents accountable. Legal experts we spoke to on this topic explain how the current administration has been a real stress test on these policies."

Mail voting is under unprecedented federal pressure heading into the 2026 midterm elections. From the White House to the Supreme Court to Congress, a series of developments is threatening a form of voting that tens of millions of Americans rely on—and that was relatively uncontroversial until just a few years ago. This explainer examines how mail voting became a partisan battleground, what the current federal threats mean for mail voting, and what states, election officials, and advocates can do in response.